Suspect in Chaska bar stabbing said he 'did what he had to do'

After being hit in the face during a Chaska bar fight, Jesse J. Rogers, 31, of Minneapolis, went outside and got a knife and when told to "just leave," fatally stabbed a bar regular in the heart, according to charges filed Monday.

Police said Rogers told them he "did what he had to do," when he was taken into custody early Friday near Kelley's Bar, 501 Chestnut St.

The victim, Jason D. Foster, 34, who lived a six-minute walk from the bar, died later that same morning at Two Twelve Medical Center in Chaska, authorities say.

Rogers was charged with second-degree murder in Carver County District Court and remained jailed Monday in lieu of $1 million bail.

Two others arrested in connection with the case have been released, and "criminal charges are not expected at this time," said Chief Deputy County Attorney Michael Wentzell.

One of the men, the suspect's 38-year-old brother, had teeth knocked out during the fight, the complaint against Rogers states.

According to the complaint:

A witness identified by the initials J.W., who also had been involved in the fight, said that he then saw Rogers in the parking lot outside, and that Rogers told him that he was coming back to "whoop his ass."

Rogers returned, holding a knife with the blade down.

"You want a piece of this?" he asked J.W., prompting J.W. to run to the bar to tell the other patrons, who came out to ask Rogers and his brother to leave.

One of those patrons was Foster.

Rogers was wielding the knife, "dancing around," when he finally swung at Foster, stabbing him four times: once in the heart, once in the lung and twice above the right hip.